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Italy supports the coffee sector

Addis Ababa – The project “Improving the Sustainability and Inclusiveness of the Ethiopian Coffee Value Chain through Private and Public Partnership”, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), represents a productive example of a Public-Private Partnership initiative to support and improve the Ethiopian coffee value chain.Thanks to a constructive and fruitful engagement with the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority, and the partnership with Illycaffe’ and the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the project aims to become replicable experience for UNIDO and its partners. The project unfolds through three levels of intervention (the field-crop production and soil management level, the value chain level and the institutional level), and aims to strengthen the Ethiopian coffee sector by adding value to the coffee produced in the country.The project’s activities include, but are not limited to: capacity building and training for more than 9.000 coffee farmers in Aleta Wondo (Southern Nation Nationalities and People Regional State) and Delo Mena (Oromia State); the renovation of 15 coffee farmers’ cooperatives washing stations and coffee drying stations. Technical support and development of a tailor-made business plan for the Sidama Coffee Farmers’ Cooperatives Union and the Burka Yadot Cooperative Union; technical support and capacity building for the Ethiopian Coffee Roasters Association; capacity building for institutions by way of international study tours to the main coffee producing and exporting countries; the development of a comprehensive communication strategy for the Ethiopian Coffee and Tea Development and Marketing Authority, as well as for the creation of national branding and marketing strategy for “Ethiopian Coffee”. Moreover, though the fruitful engagement with ECTDMA, illycaffe’ and the Ernesto Illy Foundation, the project is working to establish the Coffee Training Centre (CTC) in Addis Ababa, based on the model of the Universita’ del Caffe’. The CTC will enable Ethiopian coffee stakeholders to improve their knowledge and skills.Furthermore, illycaffe’ and Fondazione Ernesto Illy each year offer a scholarship to a young Ethiopian coffee practitioner to attend the six-month Coffee Economics and Science Master’s course at the Universita’ del Caffe’ in Trieste, Italy.